Urban Almost Said No

After the limited role he had in Star Trek into Darkness, Karl Urban almost opted out of reprising the role in Star Trek Beyond.

“After the second film, there was a huge audience backlash over how McCoy was largely marginalized,” he said. “And I certainly empathized with that.

“I almost didn’t do the picture. I was out of contract, and I had an offer to do another film that I really wanted to do and I had a real kind of conflict over whether I wanted to do this again.”

Fortunately for fans of McCoy and Urban, Justin Lin saved the day. “When Justin laid out his vision for not only the film but for the character, it became clear to me that it was going to be a much more developed McCoy than we’d seen in the previous two films,” said Urban. “And from that point, it was a no brainer because coupled with the experience of getting together with this wonderful cast, who are really like a family; it was something that I just couldn’t turn down.”

The recently-divorced Urban can now sympathize better with his character. “I feel more of an affinity to Bones in this film because ironically my life experience has caught up to his,” said Urban. “When the character was introduced in the original film he was coming through a horrendously traumatic and painful divorce and I didn’t know anything about that. But by the time we come to shoot the third film, I now have gone through that process so I have a much richer and deeper understanding for what that is.”